Brubaker Leaving Captain America

After nearly eight years on the title, Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America is coming to an end. While fans speculated that he was leaving once co-writer Cullen Bunn was brought on board for the latest arc, Brubaker confirmed the news with an interview with the Comics Reporter over the weekend. Like so many other comic creators, Brubaker is leaving to focus more on creator-owned work, echoing the sentiments of Paolo Rivera, who left behind his Marvel exclusive contract for the same reasons.

"It's the beginning a shift from work-for-hire to books I own, instead. I hit a point with the work-for-hire stuff where I was starting to feel burned out on it. Like my tank is nearing empty on superhero comics, basically," said Brubaker. "It's been a great job, and I think I found ways to bring my voice to it, but I have a lot of other things I want to do as a writer, too, so I'm going to try that for a while instead."

Brubaker began on Cap in the fall of 2004 right up to the present, leading the character through the resurrection of Bucky Barnes as Winter Soldier, the famous Death of Captain America arc, numerous events, the return of Steve Rogers, and so much more. However, the writer confirmed that he will be remaining on Winter Solider -- starring Bucky, who has predominately been the star of Brubaker's Cap run anyway -- for the foreseeable future. "I'll do Winter Soldier as long as it lasts... or, I'll do it for as long as I can. Because I don't know if it'll last, but I'm really proud of that book and the second and third storylines on it are some of my favorite stuff I've done for Marvel, ever."

As for bringing Bunn on board for his final issues (though Brubaker will still be writing his last issue solo), he said it was a matter of scheduling. Between work on Winter Soldier, Fatale, and writing the screenplay for the Criminal movie all in conjunction with Marvel's increased shipping schedule, he simply needed help. "We brought in Cullen Bunn to write an arc with me," said Brubaker. "I gave him a list of a bunch of stuff. 'Here's all the dangling plot threads and here's where we need them all to be by the time I get to my last issue.' And then we figured out a storyline together. It's strange. I did all these issues as an uninterrupted run. Then there's four issues co-written by someone. Then there's a last issue."

In all, Brubaker reflected positively on his time with the book. "I never had anybody ever order me to do anything on Captain America. I never had to do anything I didn't want to do with that book. When you're on a character for that long, you sort of have proprietorship of it. You know that Marvel owns the character, but you lie to yourself to a certain amount that you're the one in charge. And if you lie effectively enough and do good enough stuff, you are the one in charge."

The interview goes on to discuss his work on Fatale, the hot topic of creator rights, and a whole lot more. It's a fantastic interview, so check it out here.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He will love Star Wars until the end of his days.